The Florida Panthers will be without some key pieces when they visit the Edmonton Oilers tonight at 10 p.m. (BSF).
Aaron Ekblad, who left Thursday’s 4-0 loss to the Vancouver Canucks after the second period with an undisclosed lower-body injury, will be held out as a precaution said coach Paul Maurice.
Anton Lundell and Jonah Gadjovich will miss their second consecutive games due to illness.
With Uvis Balinskis sent to Charlotte on Friday, Josh Mahura will return for the first time since sustaining a knee injury Nov. 16 in Los Angeles.
Ekblad and Brandon Montour coincidentally rejoined the Florida lineup the following night in Anaheim.
Florida also recalled Will Lockwood; he will replace Gadjovich on the fourth line.
The starting goalies will be Sergei Bobrovsky and Calvin Pickard.
Florida has lost its past two games — both by shutout — and Edmonton is coming off a 7-4 loss to Tampa Bay which ended its eight-game winning streak.
In those eight wins, Pickard only made one start and got the win against New Jersey.
ON DECK
FLORIDA PANTHERS @ EDMONTON OILERS
- When: Saturday, 8 p.m.
- Where: Rogers Place, Edmonton
- TV/Streaming: Bally Sports Florida, ESPN+
- Radio: WAXY 790-AM; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
- Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL App
- Local Odds — Oilers Favored: Money Line (-145); Puck line (-1.5, +155); Over/Under 6.5 (-160/+130)
- This Season (Florida Leads 1-0) — At Florida: Panthers 5, Oilers 3 (Nov. 20). At Edmonton: Saturday.
-
Last Season: Edmonton won 2-0
- All-time Regular Season Series: Oilers lead 23-15-0, 3 ties
PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS (17-10-2) LINES
17 Evan Rodrigues // 16 Sasha Barkov // 13 Sam Reinhart
23 Carter Verhaeghe // 9 Sam Bennett // 19 Matthew Tkachuk
27 Eetu Luostarinen // 82 Kevin Stenlund // 21 Nick Cousins
67 Will Lockwood // 18 Steven Lorentz // 94 Ryan Lomberg
42 Gus Forsling // 91 Oliver Ekman-Larsson
77 Niko Mikkola // 62 Brandon Montour
7 Dmitry Kulikov // 28 Josh Mahura
72 Sergei Bobrovsky
41 Anthony Stolarz
Injured: Aaron Ekblad (LBI), Anton Lundell (illness), Jonah Gadjovich (illness)
Back to Charlotte: Uvis Balinskis
PROJECTED EDMONTON OILERS (13-13-1) LINES
93 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins // 97 Connor McDavid // 18 Zach Hyman
13 Mattias Janmark // 29 Leon Draisaitl // 37 Warren Foegele
91 Evander Kane // 71 Ryan McLeod // 28 Connor Brown
89 Sam Gagner // 57 James Hamblin // 10 Derek Ryan
25 Darnell Nurse // 5 Cody Ceci
14 Mattias Ekholm // 2 Evan Bouchard
27 Brett Kulak // 73 Vincent Desharnais
30 Calvin Pickard
74 Stuart Skinner
Scratched: Adam Erne, Ben Gleason
More must-reads: